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Monday, December 26, 2011

A year ago at this time, the reality that he had just been fired as head coach of the Devils was still settling in for John MacLean.

Tonight, MacLean, now an assistant coach under fellow former Devil Kirk Muller for the Carolina Hurricanes, will face his old team for the first time since then.

MacLean coached in the Devils’ organization for more eight years as an assistant, head coach of their AHL team and then their head coach for the first 33 games of the 2010-11 season. He admitted it will be a little strange to be on the opposite bench tonight.

“I’m sure it will be for about the first six seconds,” MacLean said this morning. “And then they’re just another team. Then, you have to get focused in on what you’re doing. You can’t get caught watching. You have to be prepared and help out any way we can.”

MacLean was fired on the morning of Dec. 23, 2010 with the team 9-22-2 and 18 points of a playoff spot. That put to an end weeks of speculation about his job security, so it was not a complete surprise.

Still, when the moment finally did come, the disappointment was real and coming to terms with it took some time.

“I’m not sure you ever get peace (from) it,” MacLean said. “It’s part of the game. It’s part of the learning experience. You learn from it and you move forward. Now, I’m moving forward and I’m excited about it. I don’t look back. I look forward. This is a good opportunity for me. Right now, that’s what I’m focusing on.”

Pinpointing what went wrong was not easy either. MacLean spoke only in vague terms when asked about that this morning.

“I think there’s a lot of variables that went into it,” he said. “To pinpoint one is not fair. It was the culmination of things. Certain situations arose and you deal with them and you learn from them and move on.”

The reality was that he didn’t have a job in professional hockey for the first time since he was a teenager. After MacLean finished up his NHL playing career in 2001-02 with Dallas, he jumped right into coaching as an assistant coach with the Devils under Pat Burns in 2002-03.

So, though for some coaches the 11 months-plus it took MacLean to get another job in the NHL might not seem that long, it was for him.

“It’s a weird situation,” MacLean said. “Sometimes it seems like a long time, but it’s only for the fact that I’ve never been out of it. I wasn’t out of it when I finished playing hockey. I got right in (to coaching). Burnsie gave me an opportunity right away, so I was right into it. But I was able to do a lot of other things I hadn’t been able to do. I was able to coach my son, J.C., this year on a team. That was fun. Then, that little short season was over and this opportunity came. The timing couldn’t have worked out better.”

Although Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello said at the time of MacLean’s firing that the organization would find another role for him, MacLean said he did not do any work for the team after he was let go. His only coaching during his break from the NHL involved his sons, J.C. and Kyle.

Muller was hired as head coach of the Hurricanes to replace the fired Paul Maurice on Nov. 28. Three days later, he brought in MacLean to be one of his assistant.

MacLean said the Hurricanes did not need permission from the Devils to speak to him or hire him. Lamoriello did call him after he got the job, however, and MacLean said there is “no animosity.”

“For me to be involved with Kirk in this situation, it’s exciting and I’m looking forward to it,” MacLean said. “This is a great organization and a team that has some potential. We’ve had some struggles, but we’re going in the right direction.”

Muller and MacLean had remained close since their time as teammates with the Devils, though it had been more than 20 years since Muller had moved on from New Jersey after forcing a trade to Montreal on Sept. 20, 1991.

Muller said it was more than friendship, though, went into the decision to bring MacLean with him to Carolina.

“Everyone, the first thing that they say is that we’re friends, but it doesn’t work unless you see the game the same,” Muller said. “I know with John, he had an opportunity to be on some winning teams in New Jersey. They’re a great organization. They know how to play without the puck and defensively and that’s something we have to get better at here. So, I think his knowledge will help in those terms. He’s an experienced coach that we work really well together. We see the game the same. He’ll work on the penalty kill. He was a 40-goal scorer that could score goals and it was nice that he was a two-way player when he played so he can bring both offensive ideas and defensive. He’s a great knowledgeable guy and we’ve been working great together so far.”

MacLean said he and Muller do have similar philosophies about the game.

“We do as far as how he wants to play and the energy that he wants and the enthusiasm that he brings and understanding that it is a great game that we play and everybody has a great opportunity here,” MacLean said. “Every night is a new night and he’s been preaching that and I think we are headed in the right direction.”

MacLean said the Muller asked him “a little bit” as far as a scouting report about the Devils for tonight’s game.

“You know a few of the players, but (Pete DeBoer has) been doing a good job there,” MacLean said. “You can’t say I’ve been a part of his system before, but you know some of the tendencies of maybe a few of the players. But everybody has different systems and different tendencies and it comes down to who gets the breaks and who works the hardest.”

***As I mentioned earlier, MacLean had nothing but nice things to say about Patrik Elias breaking his Devils’ goals record on Dec. 17 in Montreal.

“I was excited. The team worked well for us and the family and I’m excited that Kirk got the opportunity. Then, for me to come in to help is just a bonus.”

“I was there for a long time and Patrik has been there for a long time,” MacLean said. “And it’s well deserved for Patrik. He’s a great hockey player and he’s probably having one of his best years, which is good for him. He seems like a happy guy and he seems content and he’s playing very, very well. As long as he doesn’t score tonight, he can score the rest after that. I’m excited for him.”

***Muller said again this morning that he did phone all the teams that had head coaching positions open last summer, including the Devils, but "It wasn't the right timing for myself or New Jersey."

***Albany Devils goaltender Keith Kinkaid was selected the AHL Player of the Week for the period ending Dec. 25. Kinkaid, who signed with the Devils last spring as an undrafted free agent out of Union College, played in only one game last week, but that was a 3-0 victory over the Binghamton Senators on Wednesday. Kinkaid made 36 saves to post his second shutout of the season.

Kinkaid, 22, is 8-6-0 in 15 AHL appearances with Albany this season. Among AHL rookies, he ranks first in wins (eight) and shutouts (two), and second in goals-against average (2.79) and save percentage (.908).

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.